


Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

by Immortalgothgirl



Category: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Genre: Adultery, Affairs, Carlton Banks - Freeform, F/F, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Freeform, Hilary Banks - Freeform, OC, Reluctant Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 06:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13564443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immortalgothgirl/pseuds/Immortalgothgirl
Summary: Carlton was a good man, she knew. A good man who would take care of her and treat her right and he deserved the same. What he didn't deserve was a loveless marriage, didn't deserve to be a consolation prize.And he certainly didn't deserve a fiance who was in love with his sister.





	Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

**Author's Note:**

> So I recently decided to re-live my youth and binge watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and low and behold I decided to write an angsty little fic with a somewhat happy ending. 
> 
> Don't ask what possessed me to write this. I just started writing. Hope you enjoy!

Melinda Walker felt fairly certain that try as she might, she will never understand the labyrinth that is Hilary Banks. Even now, as Hilary sits across from her, a smooth tan leg slung idly over the other, the point of a Red Flame Louboutin jutting out under the Kitchen Island they currently occupied, Melinda knew that she simply looked flawless form head to toe. Hilary always did.

  
She wished they were seeing eachother under entirely different circumstances. Somehow, over the ongoing course of Melinda's flaccid, groundless and very one-sided relationship with Carlton (Which she had only entered into under passive aggressive familial duress.) Hilary and the blonde had given into the feelings of months of suppressed attraction that had been bubbling under the surface, for how long neither girl knew.

  
"We can't keep doing this, Mel." Hilary reached over the Kitchen Island to grab Melinda's hand, half expecting the girl to recoil from her touch, "Not anymore. Not now that we're going to be family."

  
Melinda looked up with puffy, reddened eyes, "Hilary, you know you're the one I want to be with."

  
At this Hillary tittered, though utterly lacking any mirth, "That doesn't matter to them. You're marrying Carlton. Not me."

  
_The wedding_ , Melinda thought grimly. Carlton was a good man, she knew. A good man who would take care of her and treat her right and he deserved the same. What he didn't deserve was a loveless marriage, didn't deserve to be a consolation prize.

  
And he certainly didn't deserve a fiance who was in love with his sister.

  
"Not if you don't want me to." Melinda sniffled, "I mean it Hilary. Just say the word and I'll call the whole thing off." She offered, hoping fervently that Hilary would dare to do it.

  
"You didn't have to accept his proposal you know." Hilary snapped, "If anything you've made things even more complicated than they already were, or did you just do it because you'd hoped it'd make me jealous?" _She's right_ , Melinda realised.

  
_The family had been sitting down for dinner when Carlton suddenly clanked his fork against his champagne flute and waited until all talk had ceased. He made a short speech about how thankful he was to have a loving family and the most beautiful girlfriend in the world, a comment that made Hilary tense up and look away awkwardly, as Melinda noticed from the corner of her eye._

  
_And then he got down on one knee, ignoring the gasps and squeals from the rest of the family and looked deep into Melinda's steelly blue eyes. 'I love you Melinda.' He said, 'You've made me the happiest man in the world, and I'd be honored if you'd let me dedicate the rest of my life to trying to make you feel even a fraction as happy as you've made me. Melinda Walker, will you marry me?'_

  
_Melinda was frozen in shock. Her eyes darted between Carlton and the onlooking Banks family, deliberately averting Hilary's glare, knowing she wouldn't be able to stomach her lover's reaction._

  
_She realised she'd left Carlton hanging for far too long. She opened her mouth to speak but her voice felt like it was being yanked back down her throat, 'I-Carlton I-' was all she managed to splutter out. 'Yes...' She eventually breathed out, stretching her lips into a taut fake smile that fooled everyone at the table but her and Hilary._

  
_The silence was smashed by an eruption of shrieks coming from the table. Vivian enveloped her into a hug and Ashley was writhing with excitement about being a bridesmaid but Melinda couldn't bring herself to pay attention to any of it because all she could think about was wishing it was Hilary._

  
_"_ Well I was hoping you'd at least try to stop me."

  
Melinda shrunk down in her seat and let her head fall into her hands as she cried hard. "This is all such a mess." _We wouldn't even be in this mess if we were just allowed to love who we want._ She thought helplessly, knowing the chaos that would ensue if she were to tell Carlton about her and Hilary, not to mention the wroth that would descend on Hilary when Melinda would inevitably be thrown out on her ear. "I wish it could be different."

  
Melinda looked up and saw that Hilary had vacated her seat and was now behind her, Melinda got up and turned around with what little space Hilary left between her and the stool, "I wish we could-"

  
"Me too." Hilary smiled sadly and reached up and tucked a wispy blonde lock behind the shell of Melinda's right ear and grazed her thumb along the alabaster skin of her cheek, grappling with that last morsel of morality in her that told her she shouldn't do this to her brother, _with_ her brother's fiance, but with Melinda's plump glossy lips scarcely an inch away, Hilary really couldn't bring herself to care.

  
The kiss was needy, desperate and, while neither of wanted to admit it, it felt _final_. Melinda's pale, slim fingers had found their way into her lover's voluminous curls, she arched her back as Hilary's arms slithered around her waist and hoisted her up onto the kitchen Island, the idea that someone could walk in at any moment was utterly lost on them as they melted further into each other. They broke apart and smiled against each other's lips, "I love you." Hilary mumbled against her lips,

  
"I love you too." Melinda scrunched her eyes shut to stop herself from crying, her hands were still woven into the other woman's hair. The diamond engagement ring on her finger now buried underneath a river loose brown ringlets. She didn't want to say goodbye to Hilary. Not yet.

  
"Don't marry him." Hilary pleaded, breathlessly and abruptly, "I'll tell my parents, we can get through this Mel, we can. Just...I can't lose you."

"I love you Hilary Banks." Melinda wrenched the ring off her finger and smiled before their lips even met, kissing each other deeply,

"I love you, Melinda Walker." Hilary replied as she led Melinda to her bedroom.


End file.
